Goat Meat Pepper Soup
When it comes to soups Pepper soup is my all time favourite, and when it comes to the type of meat for it, Goat is meat the best! There's just something about the combination of goat meat and pepper soup spice that gives a great flavour that does something great to your taste buds! If you've never heard this popular Nigerian soup, give it a go and I promise you would love it.
You would love this soup if you're a lover of spices and or heat. For those in the diaspora, this soup is a winter favourite- the cold weather definitely calls for a hot bowl of pepper soup.
As much as it can be eaten as an appetiser or as part of a main meal, it is also sometimes seen as 'medicinal' in the sense that, if you've got a cold or your ill, there's a high chance a Nigerian would recommend you have a nice bowl of pepper soup! It definitely clears the throat and by some sort of 'magic' makes you feel much better!
Just to give a bit of information into one of the main ingredient- the pepper soup spice. The pepper soup spice consist of Alligator pepper, Selim Pepper, and Calabash nutmeg. You can make the spice fresh using these spices (I will put up a blog about how to do this) or just get the already made ones at an African food store (you can check online for an African store close to you where you can purchase this or another African food you need really, online https://syndew.store)
Pepper soup can be had on it's own and I very much enjoy it on its own but feel free to add other accompaniments with it such as boiled Yam, potatoes or even boiled rice!
Now let's get to the recipe!
Ingredients
-1 kg Goat meat- cut into bite pieces
-3 tbsp Pepper Soup spices
-Garlic
-Ginger
-1 tsp Crayfish Powder (optional)
-1 small onion
-Scotch Bonnet: 3-4
-4 stock cubes (preferably beef or goat flavoured)
-Water
Process
1) Wash the goat meat and place in a medium sized pot.
2) Blend the onion, garlic, ginger, scotch bonnet together with about 50ml of water. The pour this into the pot with the goat meat. Add the stock cubes and then stir it all together.
3) Then cook on medium heat. Don't add any water to the meat and spice combination. Allow the goat meat to release it's juices! Leave this to happen for about 8-10 minutes. By this time the meat should start boiling.
4) Now add the pepper soup spices and also the cray fish powder. The crayfish powder is really optional. I've cooked it with and without and it doesn't alter the taste but I personally prefer it without. So if you're not a fish lover or you just don't want it in, you can happily leave this out.
5) Add about 600ml water in (basically enough to the same level as the meat). Allow to boil for another 10 mins. Have a taste of the soup to check if it's tasty enough for you, if not adjust to your taste- you can do this by adding more water if you feel it needs less stock cube or add more stock cube if it needs more stock cube. Also check that the goat meat is soft enough for you as well.
6)If you did any adjustment, allow the soup to boil for another 5 minutes. And that's it! Enjoy whilst hot.
